Cloaked in Shadows
by Heartless demon wolf
Summary: Tails was once known as one of the smartest animals in Mobius. After an incident with Eggman's base and being thrown out of the Freedom Fighters at fourteen, he now lives a life of solitude and rage. Having no other choice, he becomes a bounty hunter two years later, an anti-hero of his planet before meeting a female swallow with an attitude who he has not seen in years.


**Author's Note: The first chapter and this story is co-written by MajorBalto243, both him and I will be doing a chapter each, so expect some different changes in writing styles, fellow fans...enjoy and R & R please.**

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The sun was rising into the vast, dark blue sky, shining its brilliant light upon the world. As the terrain comes into view, the world looks as if…as if all the life was sucked completely away and the industrial incantations took hold upon the land. There was only one area that was untouched by machine.

It was a great forest and it expanded for thousands of miles. On the opposite side, there was a great area that industry had expanded thousands of miles in each direction. Within the industrialized city, flying vehicles were going throughout each area of the city, but on the sublevels of the city, no life stirred. The whole sublevel was lifeless; it was as if the indignations of the living were completely silenced by the machines themselves.

The city, if one could call it a city, had an eerie feel about it. There was a smog cloud that hung high above the city, as if proud at the fact that the city generated it itself. A large sign that was standing outside the city had the name of the city.

The sign read: Welcome to Robotropolis.

As if there was something welcoming about the city. The city looked like Satan himself would live there. Within the center of the city, there sits a large dome-like structure. This building was…is the capital building where the leader of this wretched city lived and governed with an iron fist.

Inside the building, the whole inside looks like the guts of a mechanical unit. On the top floor, the room is filled with computer screens, cables, odd looking robots, machines that were constantly beeping, and an oversized man who was sitting at one of the vast computer screens.

He pushes a button and a pathetic looking bald guy appears on the screen.

The oversized man glowers at the pathetic guy on the screen. "Snively, how goes the operation?"

Snively smiles maliciously. "It goes well Robotnik, sir."

Robotnik starts to laugh evilly. "Good. Good. Keep watching for the dim-witted, underprivileged, blasted Freedom Fighters. I know they're coming. I just know it!"

Snively starts to chuckle slightly. "Ok uncle. I will."

Robotnik turns off the screen and starts smiling.

'_Soon. Soon I will destroy the Freedom Fighters once and for all!' _

The forest that was on the horizon is colossal. The trees reached their everlasting limbs into the blue sky. It was the exact opposite of Robotropolis. There was life within the forest. There were no vehicles. There were no machines of any kind. And most definitely, industrialist views have not taken root in the beautiful green forest. Within the forest, a small settlement can be seen.

The small settlement has houses and a meeting place and what looks like an eating area. Within the meeting area, a variety of animals are debating on the topic that seems to be flying around the settlement a great number of times; what should they do about Robotnik?

A brown squirrel wearing blue boots and on her belt is a yellow handheld computer.

She looks upon the crowd, all gazing at her with awe and prominence, before saying, "Today everyone, we're all going to decide on how we are going to handle Robotnik. Now are there any suggestions?"

Suddenly, an arm shoots up into the air. The arm belongs to a blue hedgehog with red and white shoes on. While others are staring at him with inquisitive looks upon their faces, he is frowning for he has received the attention a number of times and has gotten used to it.

He looks at the squirrel and smiles arrogantly. "Sal, we should just blow up Robotropolis and wipe it off the map!"

Sally sighs in frustration. "Sonic, we can't just go in and blast everything to hell. Otherwise, we're as bad as Robotnik."

Sonic rolls his eyes. "Yeah, yeah, yeah. Blah, blah, blah. Whatever. Sal, we have to find a way to end Robotnik's tyranny. So what'll it be? We either go in and destroy his factories which could take months, or we can go in fast and destroy the capital building which could cause the other buildings to shut down. Which will it be Sal?"

"Sonic, your plans are highly dangerous! And even if we went with your plans, we wouldn't be able to get enough resources for another month so it wouldn't matter in the end. Sonic, we will probably be doing the first plan for it's the one that actually works and it works well with our resource management" Sally responds somewhat matter-of-factly.

Sonic starts to laugh and out of the corner of his eye, he sees an orange and white male fox with two tails, sitting on a log, pondering what was going on. Sonic runs over to him and stops right in front of him.

The fox looks at Sonic and his eyes show pure excitement. "Sonic! Hey Sonic, can I go with you on your next mission?!"

Sonic puts his paw on his chin and starts to study the fox. "Hmm…well, you're fourteen now, so I don't see any reason why not. Welcome aboard Tails!"

Tails jumps to his feet and hugs Sonic. Sonic hugs him back and Sally starts to chuckle to herself. _'Those two are inseparable.'_

Sonic starts to lead Tails off to somewhere and Sally starts to laugh. _'Going off to do their bonding again. It's always at the same time.'_

Sonic and Tails are walking along a path near the settlement that leads towards an open valley within the forest. As they are walking, Sonic decides to break the silence. It wasn't awkward, just neither Sonic nor Tails could think of anything at that exact moment.

Sonic looks at Tails and asks, "So…are you excited about the mission?"

Tails nods his head excitedly which caused Sonic to laugh. Tails looks at Sonic laughing and starts to become a little embarrassed, but quickly shifts to contentment and starts to laugh along with Sonic.

After about an hour of walking, Sonic and Tails finally arrive in the valley. It was surrounded by trees of course, but the most unique thing about it was that a beam of light illuminated the center of the valley and where the light touched, flowers grew and their beautiful influence was everywhere.

Sonic looks at Tails and smiles. "Lil' bro, this is one of the most beautiful places in the Great Forest. When we defeat Robotnik, hopefully we can restore this once beautiful world back to what it originally looked like. And maybe there will be more of these valleys."

Tails nods his head. "I agree Sonic. Maybe when we defeat Robuttnik, we can restore peace among Mobius."

Sonic starts to laugh and Tails laughs along with him. Three hours later, Sonic and Tails are walking back to the settlement along the path that they followed to arrive in the valley. Maybe they will be successful and the world Mobius will be restored to its original form. But only time will tell.


End file.
